Brice mayor who hired several relatives for village posts resigns as part of settlement agreement

Mary Beth Lane The Columbus Dispatch @MaryBethLane1

Monday

Mar 26, 2018 at 5:04 PMMar 26, 2018 at 5:04 PM

The village of Brice has a new mayor after the former mayor agreed to resign to settle multiple violations of state ethics laws related to hiring her relatives.

Amy M. Evans resigned March 7, in accordance with a settlement agreement she reached with Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien in lieu of prosecution. Cathy Compton, who was president of the village council, is now the mayor, and plans to run in the November election to retain the position, Julia Evans, the village fiscal officer, said Monday.

Julia Evans is the mother of Amy Evans, who had been the village mayor since July 11, 2013.

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According to the settlement agreement, an Ohio Ethics Commission investigation found that a month after taking office as mayor, Amy Evans suggested that the village council appoint her mother the fiscal officer. Then, in 2014, Amy Evans participated in the hiring of her cousin, Sara Shaw. Shaw was hired to make copies of village records in response to public records requests by The Columbus Dispatch and WSYX-TV (Channel 6 news). Amy Evans signed the $500 payment made to her cousin for the work, the investigation found.

The investigation also found that while still on village council on July 11, 2013 before she became mayor on the same day to replace an interim mayor who resigned, Amy Evans "may have voted" to appoint her sister, Lori Runyon, who was the mayor's court clerk at the time, to a vacant village council seat. The investigation found that Evans signed her sister's checks for the court clerk job.

Amy Evans signed the settlement agreement with O'Brien March 7 in which she acknowledged that using her position to hire relatives violated conflict-of-interest provisions in state ethics laws but did not admit guilt.

The ethics violations that Evans acknowledged are first-degree misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine per offense had she been convicted, said Paul Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Evans agreed in the settlement to resign from the mayor's office March 7, not to hold any public office or by employed by the village for seven years and to accept a public reprimand.

Amy Evans did not return a message seeking comment. Her mother said she didn't want to talk about the settlement either.

Brice, which has 114 residents, has come under close scrutiny for its traffic-ticketing practices and what some see as an over-zealous police force. A state audit last year found that the village failed to keep adequate records supporting the fines collected.

mlane@dispatch.com

@MaryBethLane1

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